Integrated circuits (ICs) may include various components for use in applications such as optical sensing applications. One example of such an IC uses a package having a light emitting diode (LED) and a photodetector in order to produce and detect light. More specifically, light may be produced by the LED, strike an object, and be reflected from the object back to the photodetector. The photodetector produces a representation (e.g., an electrical signal) of the detected light that may then be processed and used as desired.
Applications such as proximity sensing, presence detection, motion detection, and color detection frequently use such optical sensing. For example, in proximity sensing, an infrared (IR) LED may be used to emit photons that reflect off of an object and are detected by an IR sensor. When there is an object within a detectable distance from a center point between the IR LED and the IR sensor, the sensor measures the reflected signal and the proximity readout is proportional to the measured light signal intensity, which is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. These signal characteristics enable the detected signal to be measured and processed based on the strength of the signal emitted from the LED. In an ideal situation, only light reflected from the object is detected by the sensor. However, non-ideal situations frequently occur in which the sensor detects light other than the reflected light, which may result in distorted measurement readings.
Accordingly, there is a need for improvements to current optical sensor packaging solutions.